


Cold Hands

by SomeDumbGuy



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Focus, Gen, Melancholy, Multi, No Peter Parker, Oblivious Tony Stark, Post-Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Time Skips, Tony Feels, Tony Stark Gets a Hug, Tony-centric
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-19
Updated: 2018-11-16
Packaged: 2019-08-04 10:15:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16344872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SomeDumbGuy/pseuds/SomeDumbGuy
Summary: Tony never noticed he was being romanced.





	1. Chapter 1

It started out slow, slow and subtle. A month or two after Tony had gotten back from Afghanistan, after Stain attempted to murder him, he was coping with the trauma in the ways he often does. Working nonstop and going until he drops. At the time, he was in such a haze that he never noticed where he fell asleep. So it didn’t seem unusual that he would wake up in his bed. 

The nightmares in those days were intense, vivid recollections of the waterboarding, the electrocutions, the surgery. Oh god the surgery memories were the worst. During the really bad nightmares, he would feel something cold carding through his hair. It was gentle and comforting. It helped with the pain with the terror. It never woke him up but relaxed him and helped the remembered pain ease. Sometimes there was a soft whispering, calming soothing, the voice was familiar.

Soon he started to dream about cold hands. Cold and hard but gentle hands. He wasn’t sure what to make of these dreams, but they were far better than the nightmares. So he didn’t make anything of it. 

As time passed, he had taken care of the Ten Rings, Overhauled Stark Industries and kept his mind on upgrades for his suit. The nightmares became less, but his duties increased. He still worked himself to sleep more often than not. Yet every time he woke up, it was safe in his bed. Vague memories of the voice and the gentle cold carding. Sometimes the sensations continued past playing with his hair and moved to soothing touches across his body. At this point, the normality of it stopped him from wondering why. 

The dreams of cold hands continued as well. Those cold, gentle hands. The caresses, the touches, in all those places that felt oh so good. Lightly across sore muscles, skipping all of those ticklish places, but moving to all the ones that felt oh so delicious. Tony was sure he woke up a time or two moaning in need from those dreams.

Those dreams might have been one of the factors in fully recognizing and giving into his feeling for Pepper. Her hands were cold, and feeling her chilly touch brought back those soothing feelings from the dreams. It might also be a factor in why the relationship fell through. She was more than just cold hands. She was a warm blooded person that felt deeply than needed more than he could give. She needed comfort and support, not someone who will hop in a modern suit of armor and run off half cocked trying to save the world.

When Pepper left, the dreams became more frequent. The familiar voice a little more brazen, the touches a little more often. It was comforting, cold and soft. Tony sometimes ached to feel that during the day, but it never happened.

Then Ultron happened, the nightmares came back harder then ever, but now there were no soft touches, no quiet voice. No more waking up in his bed when he fell asleep working in the lab. Tony ached now, and not in that comfortable way.


	2. Ngggh Wha?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It continues.
> 
> Tony is still a little oblivious, but give him a break, He just woke up from being rescued in Siberia.

Tony woke up with a start but with a head full of wool and almost no control of his limbs. His head was swimming and the sounds were both clear and dulled. He recognized this. He must have just come out of surgery for something or other. He couldn’t quite feel all of his body yet, the slightly numb slightly “These aren’t the Droids you’re looking for” mind trick of not feeling his body, but feeling it at the same time sensation was still strong, but receding. A small part of his awareness felt a comforting light touch. The sounds of his medical lab filtered into his head. Good, he hadn’t died in that damned bunker. He fully thought he wouldn’t be making it back from Siberia. He also hadn’t been kidnapped. Both good things.

He flopped his head from side to side and moaned a bit. There, someone should know he’s up. The touch disappeared.

“Boss”  
“Sir”

FRIDAY’s and JARVIS’ voices said at nearly the same time. He was confused, they’d not been active at the same time. How could both be here? Maybe he _was_ dead. He managed to open his eyes this time. Face scrunched in confusion. His heart broke a little at what he saw.

Vision was standing beside him, looking at him with such a desperate and hopeful expression that broke Tony’s heart all the way to his guts. He knew the android wasn’t at fault for the loss of JARVIS, but his heart couldn’t help but blame him for having his voice, his diction, his cadence. He’d noticed Vision’s sad expressions every time he flinched, every time his face went blank while hearing JARVIS’ voice coming out of Vision’s mouth. Tony felt guilty about it, but couldn’t seem to stop. 

The pain in his chest started to make its way through the cotton wool of the anesthesia. He grimaced and pulled an uncoordinated hand to his chest, focusing on the white cast that he could see.

“The artificial sternum was deemed irreparable so a new one was fit and you broke some ribs.” Friday’s voice supplied. “Dr Cho was able to use one of the previous prototypes and that in combination with the cradle kept you from losing it entirely, but you’re going to need a lot more work to get back to normal” 

Tony gave a slight nod. He knew processing things would take a bit of effort while he was still getting through the anesthesia. Just because it was slow and took effort didn’t mean he was going to leave off working on things that needed to be done. He’d been working on a new armor that used nanites. Maybe he could use this as an opportunity to create a method of internal storage.

“Mr. Stark?” JARVIS’ … No, Vision’s voice broke into his thoughts.  
He gave Vision his full attention.

“I was hoping…” Vision trailed off, sounding and looking very uncertain. “we could talk” He finished quietly. Tony wasn’t ready, probably would never be ready, but he mentally steeled himself. He shouldn’t be taking his heartache out on Vision. Vision was for all intent and purposes JARVIS’s child. Vision must have taking his continued attention and blinking as assent because he continued.

“I” he trailed off, Tony had never seen him so tentative. “When I found you in that bunker, It brought a lot of circumstances into sharp focus.” he continued, Vision’s eyes drifted from Tony’s to Tony’s wrapped torso. “I thought you may not make it. Both FRIDAY and I were concerned that this might be the end of you and I would miss out on having...” Here Vision stopped. Tony got a sinking feeling, was Vision confessing interest in him?

“No” Tony whispered quietly. He couldn’t. His heart still ached every time. The loss of JARVIS still so near the surface, so painful. He couldn’t stand to have that pain every day. “I can’t… JARVIS” He whispered. Vision’s shoulders hunched in.

“I thought that would be the case.” Vision’s voice sounded defeated. “I will be moving to the Avenger’s Compound” He continued. “Please contact me when you need my assistance.” He finished then turned and left. Tony felt hollow watching him leave.

“Boss” FRIDAY’s whisper didn’t register as Tony turned his attention to how he could fix his chest. The reduced lung capacity he was feeling irked him.

**Author's Note:**

> I must say WTF? Where do these things come from??? Here I was planning on writing a fluffy Tony/JARVIS romance drabble, but _no_ , this… whatever it is, came out. I’m not even sure what tags to use :-/


End file.
